(NOTE: This learning module is divided into two parts: PART I is a general introduction to cases and digests that walks you through a generic research problem. PART II is an exercise relating to your section's Legal Writing assignment. Do PART II independently. Turn in your answers to PART II to your Legal Writing professor.)

You are a student research intern working for the deputy county prosecutor. You have just received the following request from your employer:

In order to answer any legal research question, you must learn how to recognize the terms used for primary materials and their sources. You will also need to understand how to use the various indexing tools for each type of primary material.

In our problem, the employer has asked for U.S. Supreme Court cases. Cases are a form of primary material for which the sources and indexes are called reporters and digests, respectively.

Reporters contain court decisions. A reporter may be devoted to a single jurisdiction, a number of jurisdictions within a given level of a court system, or a number of jurisdictions within a geographic area. Reporters are either official (published by the government), or unofficial (a commercially published version).

Digests are the comprehensive subject indexes for the reporters. A digest contains summaries of every subject discussed in every published case, a descriptive word index which identifies every subject, a words and phrases index listing every term that has been given judicial notice, and a table of cases which lists the name and citation of every case listed in the individual digest. There are digests for the U.S. Supreme Court, all of the federal courts, and every state, except Delaware, Nevada, and Utah.

The deputy prosecutor specifically requested decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court. The three major printed versions of the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions are:

The United States Reports (U.S.), published by the Government Printing Office

The Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.), published by West Publishing, and

Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition (L. Ed.), published by Lexis Publishing

The text of each decision is the same in all three publications. The two unofficial versions, however, contain a number of editorial enhancements. This material includes: a synopsis (describing the case's procedural history, the legal issues addressed, and the holding in the case), headnotes (summaries of the legal issues discussed in the body of the opinion), and digest references, which are assigned to each headnote.

This is the Reference area of the first floor of the Law Library, facing towards the entrance to the stacks. All three versions of the U.S. Supreme Court reports are shelved immediately behind the state codes and at the beginning of the entire reporter system.

This is the official version of the U.S. Supreme Court reports published by the government. This version contains every decision ever written by the Court. A single term's worth of Supreme Court decisions fills several bound volumes of U.S. Reports, and the bound volumes are usually published two to three years after the decisions have been issued by the Court. Because of this delay in publication, researchers who need to find very recent Supreme Court decisions have to consult other sources, even though The Bluebook requires authors to cite the official reporter.

This is the Supreme Court Reporter, the version of the U.S. Supreme Court reports prepared by West Publishing. The Supreme Court Reporter began publication in 1893, and each volume number represents a single term of the Court's work (although there may be several bound volumes per volume number). Preliminary bound volumes (pictured on the left) are issued shortly after the end of each term. Permanent bound volumes (pictured on the right) contain parallel citations to U.S. Reports, and therefore are issued only after the publication of the official version.

This is the Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition, which is prepared by Lexis Publishing. Lawyer's Edition, like U.S Reports, reprints every case ever decided by the Court. A single term's decisions take up several bound volumes. Unlike the other two reporters, however, Lawyer's Edition also contains detailed annotations for each case. These annotations are issue-by-issue discussions of the decisions, with extensive cross-referencing to other U.S. Supreme Court cases.

While each volume in the reporter system contains some type of index, searching through every volume for cases on a specific subject would be an impractical and thankless task. Researchers only consult the reporters after they have found citations to specific cases. There are many different sources designed to help you find cases on your topic; the digest is the most thorough and systematic indexing tool available in print. And although many different case publishers prepare their own digests, the West Digest System indexes all cases reprinted in the National Reporter System and is therefore the most comprehensive case index.

This is the last row of shelves on the first floor of the Law Library. Here you will find in the following order: West's Supreme Court Digest; all four editions of West's Federal Digest; and West's complete American Digest system, which covers every case ever published in the United States. The West digests for individual states are shelved after each state's code on the first floor of the Law Library.

Whenever you have a research problem, two basic elements you must initially establish are jurisdiction and time. Effective use of the digest especially depends on your identification of these elements.

General Methodology

1. Analyze the language of your research problem to determine which court has jurisdiction over the type of case you wish to find.

2. Go to the West digest that most narrowly covers your jurisdiction.

3. Analyze the language of your research problem to determine in what period of time the cases you wish to find have been decided.

4. If there is more than one edition of the West digest for your jurisdiction, go to the edition that covers your time period.

Our Problem

The words highlighted above quickly establish which digest to consult. West's United States Supreme Court Digest only indexes U.S. Supreme Court opinions. Although West's Federal Digests also index Supreme Court decisions (as well as decisions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. District Courts), you go to the digest that most narrowly covers your jurisdiction so that you do not have to wade through extraneous or irrelevant cases. Our research problem also clearly states the time period to be researched, but there is only one edition of the United States Supreme Court Digest.

General Methodology

1. Analyze the language of your research problem.

2. Find the best descriptive terms for one or more of the following elements of your case:

Issues or causes of action
Parties or facts
Places and things
Defenses
Relief sought

3. Go to the Descriptive Word Index for your specific digest and look up all of the terms related to your case. Be sure to exhaust all synonyms and related terms, and follow up on all 'see heading' references that might be relevant.

4. Once you have located the best index terms, go to the indicated Key Numbers in the main volumes of your digest.


Our Problem

The words highlighted above are the best descriptive terms for our research problem. Although "adult entertainment establishment" identifies both a party and a place, "obscenity" is a legal term with a specific meaning. We also know from our problem that "community standards" is a test for obscenity and will therefore probably be a subheading under the general topic of obscenity.

Therefore, go to the Descriptive Word Index Volume that contains words beginning with the letter O.

In the index, under the heading 'Obscenity,' there are several pages of subheadings. 'Community Standards' is one of these subheadings, and the best index term listed is 'Elements and requisites.' This entry refers you to the Digest Topic 'Obscenity' and the Key Number 1.4.

Reminder: When you're looking for a digest's Descriptive Word Index, notice that there is also a Table of Cases and a Words And Phrases index. The Table of Cases lists every case listed in the digest, both by plaintiff and by defendant, and is useful when you know the name of a case but need to look up its citation. The Words And Phrases volume contains a list of every word and phrase judicially defined by a case in the digest, and is useful when you are looking for decisions with specific legal definitions.

This rule of legal research cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Citing a case that has been overruled, reversed, modified or distinguished away by subsequent decisions could lead to disastrous consequences. As with statutes, none of the bound digest volumes are completely replaced on a yearly basis. West publishes pocket-parts for every volume of every digest. Always be sure to look up your Key Number in the pocket-part after checking the bound volume.

Our Problem

Volume 10A of the United States Supreme Court Digest, which contains all of the 'Obscenity' Key Numbers, was published in 1984. If we had looked at Key Number 1.4 only in the bound volume and had not examined the pocket-part, we would have missed the most vital case for our research problem, Pope v. Illinois.

Reading The Digest

Under each Key Number, you will find the headnotes for every case on that point of law for every case from your jurisdiction. Under our Key Number, Obscenity 1.4 (which covers contemporary community standards), we find the headnote from a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision originating from Illinois, Pope v. Illinois. The language from the headnote tells us that the Court has indeed modified the community standards test since the Miller decision. The final step of your research, then, is to find Pope v. Illinois. The citation to all published versions of the case (481 U.S. 497, 107 S. Ct. 1918, and 95 L. Ed. 2d 439) appear at the end of the individual headnote.

1.   The "One Good Case" or Known Case Method

If you already have a citation to a case on point, find the West reporter version of the case. Locate the headnote or headnotes that discuss your research issue, then find the Key Number assigned to the relevant headnote. Go to the digest for the jurisdiction you are researching and look up the Key Number.

2.   The Topic Method

Go to the beginning of the West Topic that best describes your issue. Read through the Analysis (the classification outline listing every minute point of law), and determine where your issue logically falls within that Topic.

Both the Descriptive Word Index Method (described in this exercise) and the Topic Method depend on a purely conceptual organization of legal issues. If you are approaching your research problem from a theoretical basis, these two methods are probably better suited to your purpose. If you are researching a very narrowly defined fact situation and wish to find similar cases, prefer the Known Case Method.

You should now know:

That the cases are published in reporters.

The difference between official and unofficial reporters.

That the reporters are indexed in digests.

How to identify which digest contains the cases for your jurisdiction and time period.

How to use the digests.

The Law Library has all published reporters and all published state digests. The state digests are located on the first floor of the Law Library, and are shelved with the state codes. The National Reporter System is shelved immediately following the state codes and digests. The published state official reporters are located on the third floor of the Law Library, but you will need to use only the West versions of your cases.

Refer to Sloan at 15-19 and to Writing Assignment # 3. Write down your answers and turn them in to your Legal Writing professor.

A.   Finding Cases with a Descriptive Word Index

1. Write down search terms for finding cases applicable to Writing Assignment # 3. Include terms in all four categories listed by Sloan, and increase the breadth and depth of your terms by using synonyms and related terms and by varying the levels of abstraction. (If you have done the statutes exercise already, you may begin with the list you developed for that exercise and add any other terms that you think may be relevant now that you understand the issue better.)






2. Then go to the Descriptive Word Index for the state digest of the state you have been assigned, and use your search terms to find the most relevant topics and key numbers for Writing Assignment # 3. List those topics and key numbers (the most relevant ones).





3. In the main digest volumes and their pocket parts, read the case summaries under each of the topics and key numbers that you listed in your answer to the last question. List the names and citations of the cases that you think you should read in full for Writing Assignment # 3.





4. List the search term(s) that worked best for finding relevant topics and key numbers in the Descriptive Word Index.

B.   Finding Cases Using the "One Good Case" Method

1. Pick one good case that you found by doing the statutes exercise. (If you have not yet done the statutes exercise, pick one good case that you found by using the Descriptive Word Index of the state digest.) "One good case" is a case that you believe, after reading its summary in the annotated code (or in the digest), may help you solve the problem of the client in Writing Assignment # 3. Write down the name and citation of that case.





2. Look up the case in the appropriate West reporter. Read the headnotes at the beginning of the case and write down any topics and key numbers that appear to be relevant to Writing Assignment # 3.

C.   Compare the results of your use of the Descriptive Word Index method and the One Good Case method. Were the results different or the same? In what way or ways? Which method was easier? Why?